


It's an e-pal, Shuckface

by StarNightingle



Series: Glewt and Padmas [1]
Category: The Maze Runner (2014), The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-26
Updated: 2014-12-01
Packaged: 2018-02-27 02:43:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 15,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2675978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarNightingle/pseuds/StarNightingle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thomas and Newt are employees of Maze Co. Newt is being forced to participate in a company e-pal initiative and Thomas is joining up with excitement to spare. While they don't get on at first TheGlue and Padawan become close friends while Newt and Thomas share a blossoming friendship in the real world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. What's this?

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into English available: [C'est un e-pal, Tocard !](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3469850) by [AmenOTP](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmenOTP/pseuds/AmenOTP)
  * Translation into English available: [C'est un e-pal, Tocard !](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3469850) by [AmenOTP](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmenOTP/pseuds/AmenOTP)



Newt groaned deeply and buried his face in his hands, rubbing away the headache already forming in his temples. He was too busy for this rubbish, he thought as he glanced back up at his email.

‘Knew you’d be pleased,’ the dark skinned man in the desk across from him chuckled.

Newt groaned again and glared at him. Sometimes his best friend made him wish he was as much of a hermit as people claimed him to be. Alby simply held his hands up in defence and smiled, getting back to whatever it was he had to do today.

Newt looked back to his screen:

 

From: Management

To: All

Subject: New Initiative

Hello all,

Recent times have been hard and it has been noted that general well-being within the work space has been declining. In an attempt to rectify this situation we are introducing a new plan. This plan hopes to bring about a sense of cromradery and safety in our building.

Each employee of Maze Co will be required, by the end of the day, to have filled out the short form available in the link below and will be allocated to another at random. Correspondence of once a day will be compulsory, subject matter and length are up to you.

Please direct any questions to my office.

Regards,

Director Janson.

 

Newt eyed the email as if it were personally out to get him. Janson probably was. He wasn’t sure what he’d done, but Newt was sure Janson hated him. He always had an overflow of work to do, all with ridiculous deadlines and impossible requirements. This e-pal thing was just going to take more of Newt’s precious time and he was sure there’d be consequences if he ignored it.

‘The sooner you do it the better.’ Alby called, shuffling some papers and popping them in his ‘out’ pile.

 ‘Why do I have to do it at all?’ Newt complained.

Alby was Newt’s higher up at work but they had known each other since they were in college. So Newt didn’t censor himself like he would with any other boss. He had complained about work and the director countless times. Enough times for Alby to know exactly what he was thinking.

‘Because, Janson personally wants to make you miserable.’

‘Bloody right he does.’ Newt grumbled, ‘where exactly does he think I’m going to fit this in between worksheets, meetings and report writing? The man is trying to kill me I swear.’

‘It’s one email, Newt. You handle emails in your sleep. You’ll be fine. Just do it.’

Newt grumbled under his breath before opening up the link provided. He was relieved to see it simply contained two boxes: email and pseudonym. He filled out the sheet and clicked _complete_ quickly. Now time to get back to his real work.

######

Thomas arrived in the office dead on time. He was panting slightly as he threw his bag behind his desk and plopped down into his chair. After an annoying fight with his alarm clock this morning (in which he’d thrown a book at it, broken it and fell back asleep) he had gotten out of bed later than he would have liked. He’d skipped breakfast and hastily gotten dressed in whatever was closest, smelt alright and looked halfway professional.

A piece of wadded up paper hit the top of his head as he waited for his computer to log him in and he looked up sharply. Minho was sitting at his desk, scrunching up another piece of paper in his hands and smiling innocently. The half full trashcan near Thomas’s desk showed just how bored his Asian friend was already today.

‘You’re late, shuck face.’

‘I’m not late,’ Thomas replied, glancing at the clock on his computer as it ticked to the hour. ‘I’m logged in, it’s 9 am, I’m officially on time.’

‘Yeah, yeah, Greenie. You’re lucky I like you so much or I’d tell on you.’

Thomas threw the paper back at Minho, aiming at his smug smile for the nickname. Thomas had started working at Maze Co P.R. almost two months ago and he was, in no way, the newest employee there anymore. In fact that Teresa girl had started not long after he had, if anything she was the greenie. He supposed it didn’t help that his last name was actually Green though. Or that Minho was a sarcastic shit who had thought that hilarious.

Thomas ducked the returning missile as he opened up his emails. He spotted one marked _important_ and clicked into it quickly. After reading for a minute he grinned broadly.

‘Pen-pals!’ he called happily over to Minho.

‘The correct term is e-pals, shuck face.’

‘Who cares what it’s called. It’s cool!’

‘You’re one weird kid.’ Minho said, mostly ignoring him in favour of finding the email himself, truth be told he never did much of any work until Thomas sat down for the day. ‘Well, look at that.’

Thomas was far too excited when he clicked the link provided. He hadn’t had a pen pal when he was a kid, as much as he’d wanted one. And the thought that he’d be talking to someone from the office he didn’t even know? Thomas loved to make friends; he had an ingrained curiosity that made him want to know everything about everyone.

‘Now for the hard bit.’ Minho muttered, grin starting to form.

‘What?’

‘Picking code names.’

This was too cool!

######

Newt was in the middle of sorting out a frustrating scheduling mistake, people always sent their problems to him to fix, when his email pinged.

 

From: Padawan

To: TheGlue

Subject: ‘Sup!

Hey!

I’d introduce myself but the whole point of this seems to be anonymous and you’ve got to admit, that’s cooler. I will tell you a bit about me though. I’m a guy, I work for Maze Co, I’m still early 20s and I always wanted a penpal, even though my shank friend keeps telling me this is technically an e-pal.

Talk to you soon, hopefully,

Padawan

 

Oh excellent, an enthusiastic one. Newt would have to shut that down quickly, before it got out of hand. And Padawan? Who was this guy? Obviously a Star Wars freak, and while Newt had to admit he loved the series himself, why would he go for Padawan when he could be a Jedi?

 

From: TheGlue

To: Padawan

Subject: “‘Sup”?

Hi,

I don’t exactly have time in the day to play this stupid bloody game some idiot personnel manager came up with. I’ll return the favour of introducing myself but only so our allocated one email a day will be easier to get through. I’m male also, I work for Maze Co too (obviously), like you I am under 25 and listen to your friend, it’s an e-pal.

Til tomorrow,

TheGlue

 

He switched tabs back to a table of meeting times and personal schedules, working through the problem, finding free spaces and rearranging people to fit his needs. He was damn good at his job, he worked hard to get to where he was and he was second in charge of this branch which meant he was allowed to move people around himself. Generally when he was finished more people were pleased then displeased and he got a pat on the back.

He hadn’t made much progress on his current predicament though when his email pinged again.

 

From: Padawan

To: TheGlue

Subject: It’s a form of greeting :P

Too busy to send a few short emails a day? Sounds like a load of crap. This’ll be fun, you’ll see. Like I said I always wanted a penpal (both of you can get lost it sounds better) and this is a great opportunity to take a load off. Looks like we have heaps in common too so it should be easy to get along.

How about each time we send an email we ask a question about the other? It’ll make getting to know each other quicker. My question for you is: What’s your favourite colour?

Reply soon,

Padawan

 

Newt felt his temper rise ever so slightly. A load of crap? He was a complete bloody stranger, he had no right to say that! And what was he doing that he could reply back so quickly? Obviously not his work. Newt had half a mind to ignore him and half a mind to blow the system and find out who Padawan was so he could punish him for slacking off. Unfortunately his brain wasn’t working very well so Newt ended up typing out another reply.

 

From: TheGlue

To: Padawan

Subject: It’s a stupid greeting.

Hi,

Yes, I’m too bloody busy. Unlike some people I have a lot of work to do in a day. I do not see any enjoyment being gained from talking to a stranger who insists on calling this by the improper name (e-pal sounds better because it is correct) and I do not need to ‘take a load off’.

Your question is ridiculous and I am not going to tell you my favourite colour because we are not friends.

Goodbye,

TheGlue

 

‘You’re yelling at your e-pal, aren’t you?’ Alby smiled at him accusingly.

‘Well maybe if he wasn’t such a bloody idiot.’ Newt grumbled.

‘I hope you’re not using your go to curse word. It’s one hell of a give away. And how is he being an idiot?’

Newt cursed under his breath as he realised that in fact, yes, he had used the word _bloody_ in both emails and, yes, it was a dead give away, him being the only person in the office who used it every second word.

Instead of explaining his predicament to Alby he simply forwarded the chain of messages to his computer. Newt had more important things to do than discuss this random, lazy, Star Wars freak.

‘Padawan hey? Interesting choice. Why not go for Jedi?’ Alby mused as he read.

‘Exactly!’ Newt exclaimed absentmindedly.

‘Well he seems fine to me. Don’t know what your problem is.’ Ably said when he was done reading it through for the third time, just to be sure he hadn’t missed any slight on Padawan’s part.

‘What do you mean? He-’

‘Is an enthusiastic bloke, who is obviously excited to talk to new people, who you are shutting down. Pretty hard too I might add.’ Alby levelled a commanding gaze his way. ‘Newt, I know this isn’t an ideal situation for you. But maybe he’s right; you’re always so tense. Maybe this’ll help you take a load off. I think you should be nicer to the kid.’

Newt had to begrudgingly agree with him. The guy was obviously excited, and Newt had snapped at him pretty quickly. He hated when Alby spoke sense in his serious voice, there was no getting around him, suppose that’s why he’s the boss.

‘Fine. I’ll say I’m sorry in the email tomorrow.’

‘That’s all I can ask from you.’ Alby gave his friend one more smile before turning back to work. He had thought long and hard to come up with a scheme that would improve workplace relations and he really hoped this worked. Not just for Newt, but for all of them.


	2. Fine, it could be cool

Newt was one of the first people in the building every morning. Today was no exception. Today he even beat Alby in.

He made himself a strong cup of tea and sat inhaling the steam for a minute, enjoying the silence, before getting to work. He had schedules to check, people to make happy, three reports to finish typing up and one email to send. He decided to get the email done first, it was the polite thing to do and then he wouldn’t have to bother with it later.

 

From: TheGlue

To: Padawan

Subject: My favourite colour is orange.

Hey,

Apologies for yesterday, I was an absolute piece of klunk. This email is to say sorry and offer peace. This e-pal (because that’s what it’s called) thing might be alright.

So what’s your favourite colour?

TheGlue

 

Satisfied that he had written enough and been nice enough Newt sent the email and settled in to do work as he waited for a reply. Today looked like it was going to be a good day.

######

Today was not a good day. After spending the night ranting about how rude his pen-pal was to Minho via text (most of which he was sure were ignored) he had gotten to sleep a little later than ideal.

Thomas had gotten up on his alarm today, now on his phone instead of the still broken digital clock, but he was so tired. He got to work five minutes before he was due to start and dropped his bag near his desk, plopping into his seat.

Minho wasn’t at his desk, which was surprising. Minho was always at work before Thomas. What if him not being there meant something horrible had happened? What if he’d died? Thomas laughed at himself. Minho was not dead, he needed to stop being so dramatic.

Thomas swirled his chair in a circle once or twice while he login loaded and then clicked his emails. A new one from TheGlue, hey? This would be interesting. Surprisingly it was. Seemed like TheGlue was having a bad day yesterday, now he was all smiles and apologies. Thomas was half tempted to be rude back, give him a taste of his own medicine, but his excitement from yesterday came back full force and he happily replied.

 

From: Padawan

To: TheGlue

Subject: Orange? Mine’s blue.

But like a sky blue, not royal or navy or any of that klunk. And it’s no fun if you just reply back with the same question so new rule: You have to answer your own question too and come up with a new one to send back. You’re forgiven for yesterday, how could I stay mad at my **pen-pal**?

What’s your favourite book? Mine’s Ender’s Game,

Padawan

 

‘Greenie!’ Minho yelled as he entered the room in a flurry. ‘Serious problem this morning, new system update isn’t agreeing with our calendar program. I’ll need you to be a good little runner today.’

Maze Co, Thomas had found out early on, had strange names for the jobs they had. Made things more interesting he supposed. Builders were in charge of keeping the building running and making sure nothing broke or fell over. Sloppers were the name given to cleaners who roamed the buildings occasionally, Thomas’s little brother, Chuck, actually had a position with the sloppers. The cooks worked down in the cafeteria, obviously. Track-hoes were in charge of maintaining current company relations. Med-jacks worked in personnel. And the lawyers were called slicers.

Thomas and Minho were called the runners, they were in IT. For such a big company Thomas had come in expecting more than just one other guy on IT but Minho had explained that, for the most part, things ran well enough that there wasn’t often a need for them. In fact most days Thomas spent maintaining the company site and making sure everybody was happy. It did mean however that when things went wrong he and Minho had to run like crazy all over the building, hence the name.

Thomas barely had time to minimise his computer screen and grab everything he needed before Minho was dragging him out of the room, briefing him on how to fix the problem that seemed to be affecting everyone to different degrees.

######

Newt’s day was going great. He was on top of the world and everything he needed to do fell away with ease. He was blasting through the day, he’d be finished early at this point. He even planned to check his emails at lunch and see if Padawan had replied.

He was still smiling brightly when it happened. It started when he clicked on the company calendar program. Personally he didn’t like it, he’d had his own calendar installed a while back but he still needed to sync it with the company one a few times a day.

So he had clicked on the company calendar and waited for it to open. And waited. And waited. Until he got bored of waiting and clicked it again, only for his screen to go a disheartening shade of ‘not-responding’ grey.

‘No.’ He said, staring at his screen. ‘No, no, no!’

He looked up for Alby only to discover he wasn’t there, he’d gone to some meeting or other this morning and hadn’t returned yet.

‘Turn it off and on again.’ He muttered at himself. No use getting worked up over something with an easy fix.

He turned the computer off, waited ten seconds and then pressed the on button. His computer hummed faithfully for a few moments before his screen was filled with error messages. He hit his head against his desk and reached for the phone.

‘Hey, yes, it’s Mr Isaacson, mhmm, well my computer has just crashed and- oh, I see, yes, well I was doing something rather important so if you could send someone up as soon as possible.’

 _Bloody hell!_ Of course all the computers in the building were breaking down. And with only two runners. They really should hire a few more, for situations like this. With nothing to do but wait Newt pulled out his phone and decided to check for Padawan in his email box. There he was, just as expected. Newt scoffed at his precise answer to the question.

 

From: TheGlue

To: Padawan

Subject: Yes orange, like rusty orange.

Hey,

Ender’s Game huh? Very sci-fi, I saw the movie recently, pretty good stuff. My favourite book is Lord of the Flies. I know, it’s the one you have to read at school and why would I like that klunk. But hey, it’s good.

How’s today with these computer breaks downs? Reckon we could use a few more runners out there today. It’s seriously damaging my chances of an early minute.

So... what’s your favourite food? I quite enjoy chicken salads.

TheGlue

 

The runner Minho appeared near his desk not a few moments after and apologised profusely for the trouble. He explained the problem as he linked his tablet to the hard drive and pressed buttons quickly. Five minutes later he was running off to fix someone else’s computer, his pager had gone off several times and he looked harried.

Newt gladly logged back into his computer and got back to work for the day, he’d only lost ten minutes of time but he’d also had to cancel out of a few documents without saving so he’d be there for a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta'd so let me know about mistakes you find.  
> Was pleased with the positive feedback i received and decided to keep going with this. Shouldn't take long to finish anyways :)


	3. Have you met..?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No emails this chapter, which I forgot about, and also purely Thomas pov :L maybe switch to mostly Newt next chapter, idk yet.

The rest of the day was hectic for everyone. People had lost work that needed to be re-done, Thomas and Minho were running around like mad men trying to get everybody fixed up and warding off the hundred or so questions about retrieving lost work.

When Thomas and Minho finally slumped into their chairs that afternoon they were both beat. Thomas had his head resting on his desk and Minho was lounging over his chair in a way Thomas doubted could be comfortable.

‘Nice to see you boys working hard.’ Came a voice from the entrance of their small office space.

Thomas sat up so hard he had to bring a hand to his neck and ease the sudden pain he had there and Minho had to wave his arms widely to stop his chair toppling to the ground. The manager of the building stood in their doorway.

‘Mr Glader, sir, we’re so sorry. It won’t happen again.’ They both started saying in a rush.

‘Gentlemen it is fine. Today has been a long day. In reward I’ve organised things so that any work not done today can be postponed til tomorrow and the whole building is having an early minute and invited to come down to the Homestead for a drink.’

Thomas and Minho glanced at each other before smiling brightly.

‘That’d be great, sir.’ Thomas said for both of them.

‘Alby, please. This will be an informal occasion and you boys have been our saviours today. Come down when you’re ready.’

They didn’t have to be told twice and as soon as Alby left the room they were hurriedly logging off and putting things away. Thomas didn’t even check his email, which he considered briefly before deciding he could do it later from his phone.

The Homestead was a bar just around the block from Maze Co and Thomas had been there a few times before with Minho. The place was sort of like one of those fancy bars that Thomas got a sense of importance from just walking into. There was always someone having a serious business discussion at one table, a couple people unwinding with a brandy at another. All the titles in the world couldn’t make Thomas feel like he’d made it through college for a good reason more than that bar.

Thomas could already see a large portion of the bar was filled with Maze employees and he bet the proprietor was thanking Alby for all the business today. Minho pushed through the crowd to find the table their friends were sat at. Teresa and Brenda hailed them with fake prayers for being the champions of the day.

‘Our hero runners, always working their hardest to get us out of Maze quickly.’ Brenda cried.

‘Did you start drinking without me, man?’ Minho questioned, ‘Not cool.’

Thomas took a seat next to Teresa, mostly ignoring the ruckus being made by Minho and Brenda as they fought over who could hold the most drink anyway. That was going to end badly; Thomas couldn’t wait to drag Minho home tonight, Brenda always won that fight.

Teresa was one of the two people who had come to work for Maze Co after Thomas, the other being some kid called Aris that Thomas didn’t really get along with. He and Teresa however had become good friends. They’d spent a lot of time working together getting to know the ropes and had laughed at the strange curse words the company had made up after a complaint about too much swearing.

Brenda was a veteran of Maze but had only recently transferred branches after she had moved to the area. She was also just getting used to the Maze speak but, unlike Thomas and Teresa, hadn’t made any effort to integrate it into her own vocabulary.

 ‘Hey, T. Get much work done today?’

 ‘Sure did, thanks to you two.’  Teresa pushed a glass towards Thomas, ‘For you. Thanks for saving our butts.’

Thomas laughed, ‘It was nothing, just a simple clash in the coding for-’

‘No! Stop before I hit you!’ Brenda cut in. ‘How many times have I said; no tech talk out of work.’

‘Aww, slim it Brenda, he’s just trying to impress the pretty girl.’ Minho said leaning in closer to Teresa from her other side and lowering his voice a pitch, ‘Though let’s be honest, it was me who wrote the code that- Ow!’

Brenda smiled sweetly as she withdrew her hand, raising her glass at Teresa. Minho grumbled about physical abuse in the workplace and Thomas chuckled at them. There was nothing like unwinding at the end of the day with these guys.

They sat talking happily amongst themselves for about an hour, slowly getting more and more buzzed as time passed. Minho was definitely going to need caring for tonight so Thomas was taking it easy on the drink, watching him and Brenda down glasses together in competition. Teresa had the same idea as Thomas and was looking dubiously at Brenda.

‘I need the loo.’ Minho said, attempting to straighten himself up in order to move towards the bathroom.

‘You need water.’ Thomas replied standing too, ready to walk in the opposite direction to get his friend a drink.

That was when he saw him. The tall skinny blonde who walked in the bar just as he stood. With the perfect, golden hair and the most touchable looking skin and the eyes dark enough to be underwater caverns. He was wearing a comfortable orange top with a light grey blazer and those beige pants some people pull off so well. Thomas fell straight back to his seat in shock.

‘Newt Isaacson.’ Teresa quipped from his side.

Thomas shook his head to clear the daze and turned to his friend, ‘Sorry, T?’

‘The guy you, quite literally, just fell over looking at. His name is Newt Isaacson. Parents must’ve had a sense of humour. He’s second in command at Maze.’ Teresa was smiling wickedly at Thomas, eyes glittering.

‘Not fair. I just stood too quickly. I wasn’t looking at anyone.’ Thomas retorted.

‘Yea you were, man. And why not, Blondie’s hot, for a dude. Don’t think he’s ever dated anyone though, so busy. Surprised he’s here.’ Minho slurred.

‘I was not looking!’ Thomas argued.

‘Oh, yea, you totally were. You’ve gone all red and are looking anywhere but Newt. Everyone always calls him a hermit. It’s not true though, much as Min seems surprised he does actually come out often enough.’ Brenda joined.

‘Why does everyone know more about the cute stranger than I do?’ Thomas said, relenting to his obviously transparent attraction to the guy. _Newt_ , weird name. Gorgeous guy.

‘Because we pay attention to the outside world?’ Teresa laughed, ‘No, I met him a couple weeks ago to organise a meeting and Min and Brenda have been around long enough to know the higher ups. He’s a cool guy really.’

Minho laughed, ‘From the looks of it “cool” isn’t the only adjective Thomas can think of to describe him.’

Thomas threw a scrunched up napkin at Minho, ‘Go to the bathroom you shank.’

Teresa and Brenda continued to tease him as Minho stumbled away but Thomas could do nothing but stare at the angelic looking blonde. He was just so perfect, how was it fair? His hair fell around his face like it had been put that way by a team of stylists and his frame was slight but, from where his sleeves were rolled, you could see he must definitely take time in his busy schedule to look after himself.

Minho collapsed back down in his seat and clapped a hand on Thomas’s shoulder. ‘I could introduce you, ya know?’ Thomas turned back to Minho with his eyes wide and mouth working like a goldfish as he tried to decide what to say back. ‘Well, I’ll introduce you if you stop doing that.’

Thomas’s mouth snapped shut. ‘I didn’t think you knew him that well?’

‘I don’t, but that guy he’s sitting with is Gally. He’s a bit of an arse but we can ignore him and just talk to Blondie.’

Thomas’s mind whirled as he tried to decide whether or not this was a good idea. Minho made the decision for him though and pulled him to his feet, shoving him towards the other table.

‘Gally!’ Minho called cheerily when they got to the table.

‘Minho.’ Gally looked up at Minho with half-disguised annoyance. Thomas immediately didn’t like him.

‘Hey!’ completely oblivious to the daggers Gally was sending his way Minho pushed him aside to sit at the table. ‘I’d like to introduce you guys to Thomas, our newest runner.’

Gally turned his gaze to Thomas before disregarding him completely. Alby who was also sitting at the table nodded and shook his hand, politely introducing the rest of the table; Winston, Sonya and Harry (short for Harriet he was told). Newt was introduced last and looked at him with curious eyes.

‘New runner, hey? What happened to the last one?’

Minho shuffled awkwardly on his feet before mumbling back a reply, ‘Ben had some sort of mental break down. He moved away; think he’s recovering fine though.’

‘Bloody hell. Great job prospects then, last guy went nuts.’ Newt smiled at Thomas and Thomas felt his heart skip a beat or four. ‘Nice to meet you Tommy.’

‘Nice to meet you too.’ Was all Thomas could think to say back. He had an accent! A strong, thick, sexy accent.

‘Good job we had you two around today, hey? I remember when Ben left and someone,’ Alby gave a pointed look at Gally, ‘didn’t want to hire a replacement.’

‘Yea, well, it was mostly Min-’ Thomas started.

‘He’s being modest.’ Minho said forcefully. Minho looked like he was going to murder him for ruining the opportunity being handed to him. ‘Thomas is great at this stuff, he’s really improved the workplace and the upgrades to the site were all him. Curious shank, always looking for new, better ways to do things.’

‘Oh the site updates were you?’ Newt asked.

Thomas blushed hard, ‘Yea, it’s nothing. Anyone could have done it if they just figured it out.’

‘Yea, well, we didn’t figure it out. You did.’ Minho said, he was contemplating hitting Thomas, he needed to learn to talk himself up.

Thomas rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously.

‘I think what he’s saying is take the bloody compliment.’ Newt chuckled.

‘I thought modesty was a virtue.’ Thomas joked.

‘Not when you’re around your bloody boss it’s not.’

Thomas laughed along with the whole table at Newt’s joke. They began to speak easily after that. Chatting about this and that, nothing in particular and nothing serious or work related. Gally and Winston went to fetch new drinks. Sonya and Harry left for the bathroom. And Minho got up to return to Brenda, wanting to make sure she wasn’t cheating, Ably joined him to see how she was settling in at their branch.

That left Thomas and Newt sitting at the table. Thomas bet Minho had somehow orchestrated the whole thing and was nervous that conversation would stop now they were alone. They kept babbling on happily however and Thomas soon relaxed. By time he looked up from their conversation again half the bar had gone home and it was looking surprisingly late. He looked over to see Minho laying his head against the table he’d left him at and Teresa and Brenda were nowhere to be seen.

‘Suppose you should make sure he’s okay.’ Newt said with a smile.

‘Shank probably lost enough brain cells tonight to put him back in the caveman era.’ Thomas complained.

‘Well, glad he's not my problem then.’ Newt stood, ‘I guess I’ll see you around.’

He was about to turn away and walk off when Thomas quickly called out to him and, using what little courage he had left, spoke up again. ‘Hey, would it be cool if I gave you my number, I know you’re my boss and all, but you’re a cool guy and maybe we could hang out sometime.’

Newt’s smile widened, ‘Bloody glad you asked, I’m technically not allowed to and was worried for a second there.’ He scribbled his number on a piece of paper he pulled from his coat, apparently always prepared, ‘Just send me a text and then I’ll have your number. See ya round, Tommy.’

Thomas felt elated for the rest of the night, despite having to drag Minho’s arse back to his place and put him to sleep on the couch so he wouldn't accidentally roll over and die. It had been a good night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been finished uni for less than a week and I'm so bored I'm just sitting here fic-ing. But no one is checking it so beware of mistakes. 
> 
> I'm writing this like 'what is a Newt? is this a Newt? does he sound like that? does he really say bloody as often as that? i do, so why wouldn't he?' so I'm sorry if they aren't exactly perfectly in character...


	4. You're kinda cool.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the next week and Newt/Thomas really likes Padawan/TheGlue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter titles really don't have much to do with the story, it's just what i called em in my planning write up... Also this was Beta'd (what?!) so I absolve myself of any mistakes and place the blame on someone else haha. 
> 
> Thanks for all the nice comments, hope you're still enjoying :)

Thomas was exhausted. It had been one hell of a week and the weekend had rolled past without seeming to give him a break. Now it was back to work on a Monday morning feeling no less rested than he had been Friday afternoon.

He had thought that dragging Minho’s drunk ass back to his apartment and then getting him up the next day in time for work was going to be his biggest challenge for the rest of the week. Boy was he mistaken. Despite the fact that he and Minho had fixed up the computers the day before there still needed to be heaps of work done to get them all running at peak performance. That meant lots of trial and error, lots of hitting his head against the desk and lots of staring desperately at screens praying they would work this time. It had taken the remainder of the week to finally get the last one done.

In that time Thomas had managed to send off one text to Newt, giving him his number but otherwise he hadn’t heard a peep from the blonde. He’d even asked (begged) Minho if he could be the one to check up on Newt’s computer but to no avail, he’d been having a meeting at the time, Thomas had been and left without seeing him.

His one solace was TheGlue; his anonymous, enforced pen pal. Thankfully TheGlue’s good mood had continued and getting to his desk to check his emails had become one of Thomas’s favourite things. Also he’d be lying if he said he hadn’t been letting off a little steam by participating in a little harmless flirting with the guy. So? Who could hold it against him?

TheGlue (Thomas really needed to find a new name for him cause that was getting ridiculous) seemed like a genuinely nice guy after the first day. He had apologised for being rude and played along with Thomas, listening to him and replying quickly.

So far in their little game Thomas had found out that TheGlue (really needed a different name) liked indie music, drank way too much tea, liked the time just before sunrise best and he had a sister he lived away from. He’d learnt so much more with their little questions each day; light-hearted questions like ‘what’s your favourite scary movie’ (well obviously yours is Scream), but also hard hitting questions like ‘what’s your biggest regret’ (someone’s feeling broody today).

It was crazy how well he was getting to know this complete stranger. Even Minho was getting annoyed by all the ‘TheGlue said this’ and ‘TheGlue said that’ Thomas was always spouting. Minho’s own pen pal (it’s an e-pal, Shuckface) only emailed him once a day, simple ‘hey, how are you, I’m good, enjoy your day’ stuff.

 

From: Padawan

To: TheGlue

Subject: Hey stranger.

How was the weekend? I can’t believe it’s over already! Surely that wasn’t two whole days. I didn’t even get a chance to stalk the workplace cutie. Hey, I’ve never asked before, but why ‘TheGlue’? In our true style I shall answer the question too. Truthfully I didn’t want to be Padawan but, after an intense and traumatic battle of rock paper scissors, my shuck friend got to be JediMaster.

Hope you had a good weekend,

Padawan

#####

Newt laughed out loud, shocking Alby for a moment. A very short moment.

‘Padawan?’ he asked resignedly.

‘Finally know why he’s Padawan, his friend wanted to be JediMaster, they fought over it.’ Newt said, still smiling to himself.

‘Right.’ Alby replied.

It wasn’t that Alby didn’t care, he was beyond happy that Newt was getting so much enjoyment over this stupid e-pals thing, it’s just that it seemed to be verging on the only thing he talked about. Apart from work, of course.  Which had been crazy this last week.

After the computers had gone down and they had come in the next morning they had needed to really assess the damage of losing a day. They had an important prospective client they really needed to secure and this set back was killing their chances of landing a deal with them.

Newt had been on the phone and out at meetings almost constantly, sorting things out and losing his mind, sleep and a touch of weight.

‘You look like klunk man. Sure you needed to come in today?’ Alby asked his friend. He had told Newt he’d be able to handle things today. Give the guy a chance to sleep and eat.

‘Tell it how it bloody is, why don’t you? I’m fine. It’ll be a short day, I promise, and we’ll go out for lunch at the Homestead.’ Newt replied, ‘I just need to stay on top while I have things under control.’

He turned back to his computer to reply to Padawan.

 

From: TheGlue

To: Padawan

Subject: Hi, wanna be Jedi

Good morning. You couldn’t be more right, the weekend was far too short, we should see about changing that. Stalking the workplace cutie? But Pad, you don’t even know my name, how could you stalk me? Haha.

As for your question it’s TheGlue because I hold things together. It’s my job to keep everything where it needs to be. Plus I want to stick in your mind ;) I had wondered about Padawan, glad to know your shuck friend is keeping you in place.

My weekend was fine,

TheGlue

 

Newt knew he was flirting. He knew it was a bad idea. He knew he didn’t care. He never got any real time to meet any real people and it wasn’t as if the guy was rebuffing him. In fact Padawan was flirting right back at him. No, he hadn’t told Alby; Alby would just give him shit for it.

‘So, heard anything from that runner guy?’ Alby said after Newt finished typing.

‘Tommy? Not really.’ Newt mused. Thomas was cute. Was he cute enough to be the workplace cutie? Was his internet friend talking about Tommy?

‘Tommy, huh? Thought you liked him?’

‘Yea... was it a mistake giving my number to some green bloody runner though? Would Janson kick my arse?’ Newt picked up a pen and started twirling it above the paper he needed to work on thoughtfully.

‘Newt, the last time you liked anyone was back in college. And this guy asked for your number so you know he’s interested too. Send him a text, invite _him_ for lunch.’

Newt began chewing the pen. Could he ask Thomas out? Was he allowed to? More than that though, what about Padawan? The guy he was casually flirting with. He felt like it’d be in bad grace to ask some other guy out. Padawan was stalking some cutie though, so perhaps he wasn’t serious about his flirting, just doing it for fun. _Taking a load off_ as he’d said.

He was distracted from his thoughts when his email chimed again. He put the pen back, mostly unharmed from his chewing.

 

From: Padawan

To: TheGlue

Subject: I would make an excellent Jedi.

Pad? Cute. If only there was a cute and easy way to say TheGlue. I don’t know what to call you half the time. And I’m good with computers, I’m sure I could swing stalking you somehow. The point of this would be kinda lost though; the mystery is so much more alluring.

You certainly do stick in my mind. Said shuck friend says I talk about you too much.

I’ll be thinking about you,

Padawan

Newt smiled to himself. Padawan talked to his friends about him, just like Newt annoyed Alby with all the random Pad facts and quotes. And he thought about him. Wow, Newt was going to start developing serious feelings for this guy if his rapid heart rate was any indicator. Should he try to cut himself off from that or just let it happen? Who was the workplace cutie?

‘Newt’ Alby cut through his thoughts, ‘I want you to ask Thomas out for lunch. As your best friend it’s what I’m saying you should do.’

‘Fine’ Newt said, glancing over the email again and feeling guilty for it, but knowing Alby wouldn’t let him off the hook, and maybe it was worth going out with another guy, to test things. ‘Just this once.’

‘Good that.’ Alby said.

Now Newt just needed to text Tommy and ask him out. That’d be fine yea? Alby was right, he hadn’t liked any one in a long time, but it was easy yea? Like riding a bike. He could go to lunch with the tall, dark and handsome guy he’d met once before.

What was he doing?


	5. oh, hey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Newt and Thomas go out for lunch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My beta is gonna check this in the morning but I'm uselessly impatient so posting now and fixing tomorrow when she does that :L one of my favourite things is posting just before bedtime and waking up in the morning to lovely comments.

Thomas was having a breakdown. His mental facaulties were on leave. He needed help but the only person to ask from help was the bastard across from him. He couldn’t ask Minho for help. He could call Teresa, but that would take time and Min would overhear what he had to say anyway.

Ok, here goes.

‘Min…’ Thomas started, very tentatively, half hoping Minho wouldn’t hear him and would continue with whatever it was he was doing.

‘Yea, _Tom_.’

Thomas sighed deeply and pulled himself up on his seat from his slouched position.

‘I have a problem.’ Thomas stated.

Minho glanced up at him like he was being stupid. ‘Well obviously. You slouched in your chair five minutes ago and the annoying tapping is also a dead give away. Especially when paired with the dumb scrunched up face. What do you need? Make it important, I’m about to reach the boss of this dungeon.’

Playing video games. Typical.

‘Newt asked me out. For lunch. With him. At the homestead.’

Minho stopped playing and looked up sharply. ‘Good on you! Wait how is this a problem? You’ve been pining over the guy since you saw him last week. What was it you called him? Elven angel of beauty?’

Thomas grimaced. Yes he had been exhuberent in his describing of Newt. But Newt deserved every word. He was gorgeous.

When Thomas had first got the simple text saying _Hey, want to come out to lunch with me down at the Homestead today?_ Thomas had been beyond happy. Newt was asking him out. Newt! Then his email had pinged and he had recived an email from the one and only Glue.

 

From: TheGlue

To: Padawan

Subject: Jedi’s aren’t allowed to be emotional, you’d suck.

You could always call me Glue? Gluey? No, never call me that, sounds horrible. And you’re right. The mystery is fun, sometimes I wish I knew what you looked like though. Highlight of my day and I don’t even know your face.

I feel bad for your shuck friend but don’t worry, my klunk friend would say the same thing.

Thinking about you too,

TheGlue

 

Thomas realy liked the glue. He really, really liked him. He glanced back at his screen quickly. Minho seemed to catch it.

‘If this is about that stupid Glue guy, I swear to God Thomas. This is Newt. Workplace cutie. Hot blondie. Gorgous stranger. You are not turning down the man of your dreams over some guy you’ve never met.’ 

Thomas flinched a little. ‘But this guy is really cool. And I realy like him, you know. What if behind the screen this is the man of my dreams?’

‘Behind the screen Thomas!’

‘I wish I’d called Teresa.’

‘Teresa would have said the exact same thing!’

They sat in silence for a moment, both gathering their thoughts and considering the situation. Minho understood that Thomas and this Glue guy were starting to get pretty close, TheGlue was almost Thomas talked about these days. He also knew that the other half of what Thomas spent the day prattling on about was how he’d spied Newt in the hallway today and his hair had been just so perfect.

‘Listen, Thomas. Here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to go out with Newt- no shush’ he said when Thomas tried to interrupt him, ‘You’re going to go out with Newt and have a nice lunch. While you’re at lunch you will see if you and this guy have anything in common, see if he’s anything besides your boss and the “best looking guy I’ve ever laid eyes on”.’

‘Fine.’

‘And you’ll do it happily. You’ll put in effort.’ Minho commanded.

‘Yes, mum.’ Thomas whined.

No matter how guilty he felt about going out with Newt, despite how things were with TheGlue, he couldn’t help but begin to grin. Newt _was_ the best looking guy in the world. This was bound to be great.

_I’d love lunch, just text me when you’re ready to go and I’ll meet you in the foyer._

######

Newt had been nervous to meet Thomas down at the foyer for lunch. They had arrived at the same time and stood looking at their feet and wondering if they should shake hands or something. Newt ended up holding a hand towards the door, gesturing that they should go.

They walked to the Homestead in relative silence, swapping pleasant small talk about work and how their days had been. Newt asked after Minho, wondering how it had gone dragging him back home and Thomas had answered politely.

They arrived at the Homestead and Newt, who went their often for business or for lunch with Alby, was guided to his favourite table.

‘You have your own table here?’ Thomas asked incredulously.

‘Not as impressive as it sounds.’ Newt replied, chuckling, ‘Just means I’m here too bloody often.’

‘I don’t know, I think it’s pretty cool. This place makes me feel upper class just breathing the air.’

Newt laughed softly, ‘I remember that feeling. I’m just used to the place now but back when I first started at Maze this place was the bees knees.’

‘Ahh, right. You are upper class.’ Thomas said, ‘How are you second in command? You look like you’re barely twenty.’

Newt groaned. ‘I’m twenty-four. I’m not that young. I started working for them when the branch was new, back when I was 18 and in college. Alby too. We were what was left after the purge.’

‘The purge?’ Thomas cocked his head curiously. He hadn’t heard that term before.

‘Yea, few years back all the older staff were moved to other branches. Ever noticed that everyone who works at Maze is under thirty?’

Thomas thought about it for a moment before realising he was right. Everyone at Maze was very young. Why hadn’t he seen that before?

‘Huh, I never noticed.’

‘Boss wanted all young thinkers. Put us in Maze all together and study the way we behaved and acted. Alby used to joke that they were studying our brain activity. Load of klunk though.’ Newt scoffed at the idea, Alby sure was good at conspiracy theories. ‘And hell, our branch is one of the most successful there is, we do well.’

Thomas smiled at that, ‘Course we do. With you in charge how could we fail?’

Thomas loved the way Newt blushed at his tiny compliment, red tint making its way up the back of his neck and lightly on his cheeks. What would the guy look like if Thomas said something really flirty? Tomatoes would have nothing on him.

‘So, what do you want for lunch Tommy?’ Newt said quickly, picking up a menu.

‘Don’t know. Are you on there?’ Thomas grinned widely. He wouldn’t normally be so forward but it was worth it to see Newt splutter and blush even harder before he could hide himself behind the menu. ‘I’m sorry, I just had to see you blush, you do it so well. What’s best here?’

Newt peeked out from behind the menu slowly and Thomas just smiled back at him innocently.

‘I don’t blush.’ He said quickly with an insincere glare. ‘The chicken salad is really nice here. It’s my favourite thing.’

Thomas laughed to himself. Chicken salad, that was TheGlue’s favourite food too. What a conincidence that the two guys he liked both ate that. He supposed that if it was good enough here to be Newt’s favourite, and this place was close to Maze, then it wasn’t that much of a surprise.

‘I’ll get that then, I have a friend who likes it too actually.’ Thomas replied.

‘Well then that’s one smart friend. It’s bloody brilliant.’

‘ _Bloody_ ,’ Thomas mused, ‘You’re English right? You sound English.’

‘Yeah. Moved here with my family when I was fifteen. Hated them for it, of course.’ Newt smiled.

‘Ahh, but now you’re a big wig in a big company and hey, you met me.’

‘Not half modest are you?’ Newt laughed.

‘Someone told me once that you shouldn’t be modest around your boss.’ Thomas teased.

‘Yeah, well. Don’t hold me by all I say. And besides I’m not your boss right now. We’re just two guys out for lunch.’

They motioned they were ready to order at a waitress who came and quickly jotted down what they wanted. They sat and talked for a few minutes before Thomas’s stomach made a noise in protest at being made to wait for food. Normally he just grabbed a pre-made sandwhich from the caf with Minho.

‘Looks like someone’s hungry.’ Newt said with a smile. ‘Oh, and now I know what you mean by cute blushing.’

‘You think I’m cute?’ Thomas teased. ‘Oh, look now who’s blushing.’

They laughed with each other for a moment and then, somehow, miraculously, their food appeared in front of them. Thomas grabbed at his fork and took a large mouthful. Newt was looking at him dubiously and Thomas immediately regretted it. He had to put a hand to his mouth to keep from showing the world his bite.

‘Sorry, hungry, didn’t get breakfast this morning and the sloppers didn’t clean out the coffee machine over the weekend so I haven’t even had a good drink today.’ Thomas explained after he swallowed.

Newt nodded, slowly taking a reasonable amount of food from his plate to his mouth. Thomas cursed himself internally. Why did he always have to be such a dork? And boy did Newt’s lips look good. Why was he looking at Newt’s lips? When had his eyes gotten there? He’d followed the fork. He should stop staring at Newt’s lips.

Thomas wrenched his eyes up and and smiled.

‘So go back to the homeland often?’ he asked.

‘Not as much as I’d like. I still have a sister over there, I’d like to see her more than I do. She was odler when we moved so never came with us.’ Newt replied.

Thomas nodded and thought about TheGlue and his sister who lived away from him. He wondered briefly where TheGlue’s sister did live. Sounded like she’d moved away from home a while ago. Thomas always assumed she had just gone travelling overseas and never came home.

‘Thomas I have a confession to make.’ Newt said suddenly.

Thomas’s eyes snapped to him and he knew something bad was coming. It was the ‘I actually have a wife and three kids hidden away in China’ tone of voice. Instead of replying Thomas simply nodded.

‘I feel like a bloody jerk. There’s this guy that I’ve been talking to and, well nothing’s going on but it’d be a lie for me to say I don’t want something there. It’s unfair of me to ask you out when I’m sitting here thinking about another guy.’ Newt truly did look sorry and a little crestfallen, like he really liked Thomas but this other guy was kinda a big deal.

Thomas thought about feeling rejected but then realised that everytime Newt had said something his mind wandered straight back to TheGlue so it really wasn’t fair of him to say anything. At least Newt had the guts to say it out loud.

‘Yea, I’m sorry, me too.’ Thomas said, dropping his fork and looking across at Newt. ‘You’re still one cool guy though. What do you say? Friends?’

Newt lit up, face going from distressed guilt to joy in two seconds and Thomas felt amazing for being the one to do that.

‘Definitely. Friends. You’re alright yourself Tommy.’

‘Alright? I’m amazing.’

‘Ahh, modesty.’ Newt said and they both fell into a fit of laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm rotten at dates but tried my hardest and am pleased with how it turned out... hope you've enjoyed :)


	6. I met this guy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas tells TheGlue about his date with Newt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Getting close to the end...

From: Padawan

To: TheGlue

Subject: Hey Glue?

There’s something I gotta say.

Padawan

 

From: TheGlue

To: Padawan

Subject: Re: Hey Glue?

Did you have to make it sound so ominous? What is it?

TheGlue

 

From: Padawan

To: TheGlue

Subject: Re:Re: Hey Glue?

I met this guy.

Padawan

 

Newt would be lying if he said his heart was working properly after reading that. He’d met a guy? Newt was an idiot. A complete imbecile. He’d turned down Tommy for this guy. Tommy! Cute, IT extraordinaire guy.

 

From: TheGlue

To: Padawan

Subject: Is that all?

Oh. Alright then. Why are you telling me?

TheGlue

 

From: Padawan

To: TheGlue

Subject: what do you mean ‘Is that all’?

I met this guy. And I went out with him. And he’s amazing. Workplace cutie, you remember me telling you about him yea?

Padawan

 

From: TheGlue

To: Padawan

Subject: I mean: is that all?

Oh, right, yea. Well that’s great. You seemed into him.

TheGlue

 

From: Padawan

To: TheGlue

Subject: It’s important.

He is great. Looks amazing and he seems nice. It’s just...

The whole time I was with him I was back here thinking of you. I think I really like you Gluey. What do you think? Am I alone in that? Should I see if I can beg wpc to go out with me again or is it worth leaving it? Is this, with you, something worth pursuing?

Padawan

 

Thomas’s cursor hovered over the ‘Send’ button for a good three minutes before sending that one. Was he ruining this new friendship he had with TheGlue? What did it matter really? He was a guy behind a screen, as Minho put it, and if it didn’t work out Thomas was sure he’d get over the rejection... in maybe, like, a year.

 

From: TheGlue

To: Padawan

Subject: I thought I said never call me Gluey

I’m competition for workplace cutie? Huh, I’m flattered. I don’t want to ruin your chances with this guy but, I like you too. Really like you, I mean. If you’d be willing to pursue something with a guy you’ve never actually met before then I’m keen.

TheGlue

 

From: Padawan

To: TheGlue

Subject: Sorry Glueson

So you like me too? What a relief. I was going to need therapy to get over rejection from my mystery penpal. So, you and me... do I get call you my boyfriend now? haha, I don’t even know your real name. Hey single? No. His name? Glueian.

This is too awesome,

Padawan

 

Alby walked in the room then. Breaking off the almost instant messaging their emails had become over the last tense five minutes.

‘Something’s happened. Did we score that deal with Wicked?’ Alby asked, sitting on the edge of his desk close to Newt instead of going and sitting down.

Newt clicked around on his computer a few times, trying to bring up the relevant pages for the Wicked contract.

‘Almost. Just need to push a few more issues then we’ll be sorted. Also they want a representative of the company to work in their base. I was thinking that Teresa girl, she’s new but she seems as passionate about Wicked as anyone.’ Newt relayed.

‘Hmm, I’ll think about it. Haven’t really spoken to her yet. But that’s not what you’re smiling about. Spill, Newt, no point hiding it from me.’

‘No. You won’t like it.’ Newt grumbled, ‘No ruining my good mood with your negativity.’

‘Padawan right? What did he do to make you so happy? Ask you out?’ Ably said, not knowing how close he was. ‘I’m still pissed that Thomas kid didn’t work out. Can’t believe he blew you off like that.’

Newt would have to apologise to Tommy about that later. There was no way Alby was gonna let him get away with being the guy who had decided to be just friends, cause, even though Tommy had said it, Newt had broken the ‘date’ vibe before that. So Newt had lied, to save his own skin. This place needed order to work, especially now. Order would not be maintained when the boss was taken to jail for murdering the second in command.

‘Not quite. Alby you have to promise not to throw a bloody fit, yea?’ Newt gave his best version of puppy dog eyes to his friend. His friend who caved.

‘Fine. I’ll be daisies and buttercups, just tell me what’s going on.’ Alby crossed his arms and leaned forwards slightly.

‘Padawan went out with this guy-’

‘Then why are you happy?’

‘Just shut up and listen would ya? Bloody hell… Pad went out with this guy,’ Newt stopped to make sure he wasn’t about to be interrupted again. When Alby kept his mouth shut Newt continued. ‘He went out with a guy he liked, he’s mentioned him before. But he didn’t enjoy it ‘cos he was thinking about me. He likes me Alby. And I told him that I like him too.’

‘You’re dating him?! Well without the dating bit obviously because you’ve never actually _met_ him! Newt-!’

Newt cut Alby off with a solid glare. It was the one he used when he needed to get his way immediately and someone was trying to stop him. It certainly stopped Ably short, he held up his hands defensively and moved around his desk to sit in front of his computer.

‘Fine. Nothing negative. But I won’t pretend I like this idea either.’

Alby wasn't normally like this? What was going on? Alby had been the one to convince Newt to go along with the penpal (e-pal, bloody hell) thing in the first place and then had convinced him to give Padawan a chance after he had decided he didn't like him. It really riled Newt, having Alby react so negatively. Just because Pad and he had never technically met didn't mean they shouldn't be together. They probably passed each other in the hall every day anyway, it wasn't like it was some freak from another country pretending to know him.

Newt scowled deeply. ‘And I won’t pretend I need to stay in this bloody office to work. I’m going down to the shuck Homestead with my laptop. Call if you need me.’

Newt got up, gathered what he needed and stormed out, pulling his phone from his pocket as he did so he could reply to Padawan. Ably was just being stupid. This was a great idea. He’d prove it.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Actual conversation between beta and I:  
> me: is Newt irrationally mad at Alby? I hate when things seem irrational...  
> beta: He's British, he should be irrationally mad at something
> 
> Annddd it's shorter than normal. My beta helped me decide to split this in two instead of keeping it as one so I'll probably put up the second bit later tonight, or save it for tomorrow, I haven't decided yet and I love to tease :P


	7. What is this?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas is super excited to tell his friends about the latest development with TheGlue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do love to tease but I've already displayed my impatience in this fic. Un-beta'd as a result, cause she's in bed. Hope it's still goo with no stupidly obvious mistakes... :L

From: TheGlue

To: Padawan

Subject: Creative -.-

This is great. This will be great. Glueson, guess that could work. Call me Isaac, it’s not my name but it sounds normal and there was a kid in high school who always called me that. My boyfriend Pad, the wanna be Jedi.

And it’s e-pal, shuckface.

TheGlue

 

Thomas grinned to himself. He screen-shotted the emails, enlarged the writing, put them on a nice background, with a cool border and printed off 10 of them. He was going to put these everywhere and give them to all his friends.

He started by letting one fall slowly to Minho’s desk. Minho took a second to allow it to fall naturally and then picked it up, curiously regarding Thomas’s massive smile. He read the paper suspiciously. When he was done he looked up at Thomas seriously.

‘You like this guy?’ he asked.

‘Yes.’

‘And he likes you…’

‘Yup.’

‘And you’re sure you’re ok with this whole ‘never met before’ thing?’

‘Positive.’

‘You gave it a go with Blondie. That’s all I asked. And I said that if things didn’t work out then you could give it a go with this Glue guy. If you really want this then I’ll be happy for you.’

Thomas didn’t think he could grin wider, but he managed it. He hadn’t thought Minho would like this. Minho had been really keen for him to hook up with Newt but, after Thomas had explained what happened, Min had seemed to be alright with that whole situation.

‘Min you’re the best!’ Thomas almost yelled, earning a knock on one of their paper thin walls.

‘Oh, I know, _Tom_.’ Minho grinned back, he held up the paper in his hand. ‘So how many of these do you have and what are we planning on doing with them?’

‘I’ve got nine now. I have one for T and one for Brenda. One to stick on the wall in here, one for the wall in my living room and another for my bedroom. One for Newt, cause we’re friends now. One for my mum, Chuck needs one. And a spare one to give to a passing stranger in the street.’ Thomas finished.

Minho laughed and grabbed his jacket. ‘Celebratory break?’

‘Oh yeah!’ Thomas crowed, earning another knock to which he called out ‘We’re leaving, we’re leaving!’

The first stop they made was to Brenda’s desk, closest to their own work space.

‘Hey Brenda guess what?’ Minho said as Thomas pulled a sheet of paper from his bag.

‘What?’ Brenda asked suspiciously, glancing between the two of them.

Thomas handed her the paper and he and Minho waited in silence for a minute while she read it. She let out a small squeal when she was done and punched Minho in the arm happily.

‘Oh my God, Thomas! Look at you! This is so romantic!’ She took a pin from her cork board and secured the paper firmly in place.

‘I know right.’ Thomas smiled. ‘Minho and I are going on a celebratory break. What are you doing? Can you come with?’

Brenda looked at her computer and her forehead creased slightly. ‘Just give me a minute, I’m almost at a point where I can leave this for a while.  Is Teresa coming?’

‘We’re on our way to invite her next. Meet you in the foyer?’ Thomas said.

‘Definitely, where are we going?’

‘Well, Thomas has driven himself broke on the Homestead the last few days. My place is closest, quick break there?’ Minho suggested.

‘Perfect.’ Brenda said and she turned her full attention back to her computer after straightening out Thomas’s celebration paper and making a happy noise.

Feeling infinitely more bolstered on by Brenda’s reaction Thomas and Minho walked over to Teresa’s desk. She looked a lot like someone pretending to be busy so that she didn’t have more work thrown on her desk. She’d been putting a lot into this Wicked thing, Thomas knew, and he supposed she needed the break. And the good news.

‘Sup Teresa!’ Minho said, jumping up so he could sit on her desk.

‘I don’t know and I don’t want to know what you shucks are doing here.’ Teresa said, looking like she just wanted a moment to breathe.

‘Oh, you don’t want to know? That’s fine. Come on Thomas, she doesn’t want to know your amazing news.’

Minho got up to walk away and Teresa rolled her eyes before looking expectantly at Thomas. ‘What’s the news Tom.’

‘Well…’ Thomas held the piece of paper in front of his chest with both hands.

‘What is this…’ Teresa said reading it slowly. It took her less that a moment to rip it out of Thomas’s hands so she could read it again, more closely.

‘No way! No freaking way, this is unbelievable!’ Teresa stood quickly and jumped up and down a little in glee.

‘Tell me about it.’ Minho said, turning back, ‘This guy likes Thomas for his personality. He hasn’t even been distracted from the stupidity by his dashing good looks yet.’

Thomas punched Minho playfully in the arm and Minho rubbed the spot, still tender from where Brenda had hit him.

‘Yea, yea, guys. Go for it, pay me out. But I am official with the smartest, funniest, best guy in the world. Yes that includes you Minho.’

Teresa smiled. ‘Are we celebrating? What’s happening? This is exciting!’

‘Brenda is joining us at Minho’s for a quick break. Care to join us?’ Thomas asked.

‘Sounds great. Has to be quick though. We aren’t all runners with nothing to do unless someone is suffering a computer breakdown.’ Teresa saved the documents she was working on and called to someone nearby that she would be out for a moment.

‘Teresa and I will go down to the foyer and wait for Brenda. You run see if Newt will come, yea?’ Minho asked.

Thomas nodded and headed in the opposite direction to his friends. That is, of course, after he received a massive bear hug from Teresa.

Newt’s office was a nice one, furthest from where Minho and Thomas worked. The walls were all glass so Thomas could see, even before he knocked, that Newt was out. He knocked regardless, maybe Newt was just in a quick meeting and could join them in a minute if Thomas left details on his desk.

Alby simply grunted when Thomas knocked. He seemed to be agitated today, much different from  his happy go lucky attitude the other day.

‘Hey, is Newt gonna be out long?’ Thomas tried politely.

‘I’m not sure when he’ll be back.’ Was the short succinct answer he received.

‘Well I was gonna ask him out so do you mind if I just write a note to leave on his desk?’

Alby looked up at him and frowned. ‘You’re asking him out?’

‘Well not like that. We agreed against it. But a couple of us are going to Min’s and I thought I’d invite him too.’

Alby nodded sharply, ’Post it notes are near his pen jar. Just write what you want there.’

Thomas picked up a pen and peeled a post it from the pad, smoothing it firmly over his paper. _Hey, check this out! Gone to Minho’s to celebrate. Come by if you can._ Did that sound alright? Thomas was sure it was good enough. He added Minho’s address at the bottom and left it there.

After muttering a quick goodbye to Alby, and receiving a grunt in return, he left the room and raced back down to the foyer to meet up with his friends again.

They were all eagerly waiting for him near the door.

‘No Newt?’ Minho said when he reached them.

‘Nah, he’s out or something. I don’t know. Did I do something to piss Alby off cause he didn’t seem too happy with me?’ Thomas rubbed his neck in worry, having the boss mad at you was never fun.

‘Don’t sweat it Tom. This Wicked thing is getting big and serious for everyone. He’s probably just stressing.’ Teresa reasoned.

‘Yea, how could anyone hate you Thomas? You’re a puppy! No one hates puppies.’ Minho teased.

‘You’re a puppy in love’ chimed Brenda. She still looked pleased and that seemed to set the rest of them off.

‘I’ve been texting Chuck, he agrees I should be best man at the wedding.’ Minho chirped.

‘Oh, please Min. best men have to organise things. I’ll be your best man Tom, I’d make it the best ever.’ Teresa argued.

‘You’re not even a man!’

‘Best _wo_ man then. I don’t care. It’s gonna be me.’

‘Nu-uh, no way!’

Minho and Teresa continued to argue all the way back to Minho’s place, a short ten minute walk from Maze, well normally short but they made it seem like forever. Brenda slung her arm through Thomas’s arm and skipped happily by him.

‘You’re not throwing in your vote for best man?’ Thomas asked.

‘No way. Responsibility? I was a bridesmaid at my uncles wedding. I had to watch kids and look after the bride and I never got a break. I will happily sit on the sidelines and enjoy you’re beautiful email themed wedding.’

Thomas laughed and suddenly Teresa and Minho were arguing about the theme. That lasted all the way to Minho’s front door, three flights and a long hallway later.

‘Guys, we only just become a couple. No marriage talk from this point forwards, ok? You’ve had your fun.’ Thomas said sternly as they crossed the threshold.

‘Fine.’ Minho agreed, ‘It wouldn’t work anyway. What would they call you? Thomas Glue?’

‘Maybe Isaac Green.’ Thomas retorted. Then he realised what he had done. ‘No, wait, I said no more marriage talk.’

‘Isaac, hey? It might not be his real name but it sure rolls off the tongue better than TheGlue.’ Teresa said.

Thomas smiled happily at his group of friends again. Then he took one of his pieces of paper and stuck it to the fridge with a magnet. Minho got some blutack and told him to stick one to the door too, so he could show off to passing strangers.

Yup, everything was pretty much perfect right now.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apparently I find it so much easier too write from Thomas's pov which surprises me cause I'm much better at Brit-picking then I am at Americanisms. Guess his character is just easier, less controlled, more puppy happy.


	8. Don't tell me.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minho wants to know who TheGlue is. Teresa knows who TheGlue is. Thomas wants to know nothing about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you like my fic for the crush-ception aspect (or whatever you call it) then I highly recommend this one: http://archiveofourown.org/works/2368580 I loved it so much I forced all my friends to read it too.

The next day Thomas arrived at the office to find Minho in front of their cork board wall examining about thirty pictures and sheets of paper.

‘Something that I need to know about Minho?’ he asked, setting his bag down and logging on for the day.

Their little celebration hadn’t lasted long the day before, Teresa really needed to work on her deal and Brenda had a few things that desperately needed looking at too. Thomas and Minho were a certain degree more free with their time and Thomas had spent most of the evening emailing TheGlue (Isaac?) while Minho played video games.

It looked like Minho had been busy this morning though. Thomas stepped closer and noticed that the pictures were all of the men of Maze. And some had crosses over their faces. And were those his emails?

‘Shuck, Minho! What are you doing?’

‘Asking like that, you already know.’ Minho replied, never taking his eyes from his project.

‘I don’t want to know who he is unless he tells me.’ Thomas complained.

‘Well you don’t have to. But I do want to know.’

‘How’d you even get my emails?’

‘Your password is the same everywhere. It’s a serious security flaw, man. I thought you worked in IT? I hired you to tell Slintheads not to do that.’

‘You didn’t hire me.’ Thomas sat at his desk and pulled open the office notices.

‘Well I’ve been narrowing it down. These guys,’ Minho gestured at a group of crossed out faces, ‘Are too old to be our Mr Gluemas.’ He motioned to a highlighted line on one of the emails. No doubt the _like you I’m under 25_ line.

‘These three are lactose in tolerant (he motioned at the email in which Glue had said he likes milk in his tea), these two are vegetarian ( _I quite enjoy chicken salads_ ), and these guys-’

‘Yes, alright. You’re being very clever. Now stop it, please. I don’t want to know about it.’ Thomas cut in.

‘Fine spoil sport. You’d make a terrible Watson anyway.’

‘Yea, right. Get back to it Mr Holmes.’ Thomas scoffed.

#####

Newt, in his anger at Alby, had not returned to the office the previous afternoon. He had been pushing hard at Wicked from the Homestead. All he needed today was to sign a few papers and set up a few meetings and his part in all this was done. He could officially hand it over to Alby to complete.

He had such a feeling of relief at that, and accomplishment. This deal had to be one of the biggest in all of Maze history and no doubt they’d be rewarded for it. The youngest branch in the company was pulling in the big dogs. That’d show those old guys who used to work there, the ones who never believed in Newt or Alby’s big ideas.

When he walked into his office he scowled briefly at Alby, letting him know he still wasn’t happy with the other guy’s reaction.

‘Here.’ He said, throwing a copy of his work last night onto Alby’s desk. ‘It’s almost done, should be a sealed deal by tonight.’

Alby looked at the papers for a moment, regarding them. Then he pushed them aside and looked at Newt seriously, like he had something he wanted to say.

‘I don’t want to bloody hear it Alby. Save it.’ Newt said, sitting at his desk and putting his own copy of the documents on top of whatever happened to be spread on his desk from the day before. He’d sort through it all later.

‘Newt, I’m sorry.’

‘Well, I wasn’t expecting that.’ Newt said bitterly.

‘No, Newt, I really am.’

Newt looked up at his friend and he really did seem sincere. He sighed deeply and leaned back on his chair, placing his hands behind his head and running fingers though his hair. ‘Yea, well. Thanks for that.’

‘It was wrong of me to do that to you. This Padawan guy seems alright, I guess. And, I mean, he works here so one of us hired him, right? Can’t be a bad person.’ Alby said.

Newt only nodded in response. He had things to do. He moved his papers to the side and brought up the day’s work on his screen.

‘I need you to talk to Teresa today.’ Newt finally said after a few minutes of silence. ‘I really think she’d be ideal for this position at Wicked.’

‘I’ll do it now.’ Alby stood up, stopping near the door, ‘We’re good yes?’

Newt sighed deeply. Again. He should stop that before he developed a respiratory problem. ‘Yes Alby. You’re my best mate, have been for years, still are now.’

Alby smiled at him, relief clear on his face. ‘Good that.’

‘Yea, whatever slinthead, go talk to that girl.’ Newt balled up a piece of paper from his desk and threw it at Alby, who took it and left, throwing it like a ball and catching it.

#####

Teresa burst into Thomas and Minho’s office like the building was on fire, or being visited by Brad Pitt. Both things were equally important.

‘Minho! Minho! Minho!’ she half yelled, obviously trying to keep it quiet for other people working nearby but almost too excited to care.

‘Teresa, Teresa, Teresa.’ Minho teased back.

She jumped up and down a couple times on the balls of her feet and positively beamed. ‘Figured out who TheGlue is yet?’

‘No such luck. Wait!’ Minho exclaimed, jogging to her and placing his hands on her arms. ‘Don’t tell me you have?!’

Teresa nodded vigorously. She was making little happy noises and couldn’t stand still, even with Minho holding her in place. Thomas stood quickly.

‘No! Stop! I don’t want to know!’ he said over Minho’s annoyed outcry that Teresa, who wasn’t even trying to figure out TheGlue’s true identity, had discovered it before him.

They froze near the door and looked over at Thomas.

‘You sure, man? You could know who the love of your life is right now.’ he turned back to Teresa, ‘How’d you figure it out anyway. You can’t hack Thomas’s email.’

‘Someone round the office saw one of those things Tom printed out and said they knew the guy on the other end. It’s so cool Min-’

‘I don’t want to know!’ Thomas said again, covering his ears and walking to leave the room.

‘Are you sure? I think you really do want to know Tom. I promise.’ Teresa looked ready to burst with the name. Thomas had to get out quick.

‘No.’ He grabbed his jacket. ‘Count to 10 to make sure I’m out of earshot and then you can tease Minho. I’m gonna go get a coffee. No, Minho, I won’t get you one.’

Teresa turned back to a scowling Minho and resumed her jumping as Thomas made a hasty retreat from the room. He pulled his phone from his pocket as he walked.

 

From: Padawan

To: TheGlue

Subject: Morning sunshine.

Sorry I haven’t emailed you yet today; shuck friend has been annoying me all morning. I hate to say but he’s hell bent on finding out who you are. Hey, we should exchange phone numbers. Easier than emails. If you don’t want to that’s fine.

Talk soon,

Padawan x

 

He received an email back almost immediately with a number. Thomas wrote it on his hand so he’d remember it and then went into his contacts, ready to save a new one. He typed in TheGlue into the name section and then entered the number. _The number you are attempting to save is already in your phone under a different name. Would you like to save it again y/n._

Thomas’s heart stuttered, he stopped dead in his tracks, causing more than one person to almost crash into him. He apologised quickly and moved to the side. He exited the new number screen and instead typed the number straight into his keypad. When he got to the sixth number only one contact was left in the suggested list. _Newt_.

Thomas’s fingers were shaking as he went back to the email, copied the number straight from there and sent off a text.

_To: 0036 591 548_

_Newt?_

_From: Newt_

_Yea, Tommy?_

 

This was not happening! The guy he had been crushing on was not the other guy he was crushing on! That couldn’t be right. There had to be a mistake somewhere. Maybe TheGlue had written his number wrong.

 

From: Padawan

To: TheGlue

Subject: Uhh

Hey, is that number you sent through correct?

Padawan x

 

From: TheGlue

To: Padawan

Subject: Ehh :P

Course it is. Checked it three times before I sent it, just in case.

TheGlue x

 

‘Oh my god.’ Thomas said. He was going to die, his heart rate was not steady and his breathing was sort of hinky. He was using words like hinky, this was the end.

From: Padawan

To: TheGlue

Subject: (no subject)

Hey. You know my shuck friend. What would you do if he figured out who you were?

Padawan x

 

From: TheGlue

To: Padawan

Subject: re:(no subject)

If he’s that good? He probably won’t figure it out, there’s heaps of guys that work here.

TheGlue x

 

From: Padawan

To: TheGlue

Subject: re:re:(no subject)

Yea, but if he did? Hypothetically? Humour me.

Padawan x

 

From: TheGlue

To: Padawan

Subject: re:re:re:(no subject)

Well, we’re going to meet sooner or later anyway. Guess it would just be sooner. Is that ok?

TheGlue x

 

He was ok with it. They’d just meet. He’d just meet TheGlue, meet Newt. Oh god, Newt. Newt was TheGlue! _Newt!_ No wonder Teresa had been bouncing up and down. Who had seen her? Who had helped her make the connection? Who else knew and would they tell Newt before Thomas got the chance?

_To:Newt_

_Hey, meet me in the foyer? It’s important._

 

_From:Newt_

_How important? I got a desk full of shuck papers that need to be done bloody yesterday._

Damnit Newt!

_To:Newt_

_Very important!_

 

Thomas ignored his phone and half walked-half ran down to the foyer.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TaDa! Well Thomas knows... now just to let Newt in on the secret!
> 
> Hope you liked this, my reveal pt.1. It was super fun to write, I really enjoyed it. As always, let me know you're thoughts in the comments, now more than ever, my self-consciousness needs soothing lol, this is like the pinnacle of this fic and it's got me worried.


	9. Yay.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Final chapter. Are you sad?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At first I thought this fic would be super hard cause Maze Runner was something I hadn't done before but I ended up loving every moment I spent writing this and reading your comments. Thanks for making it a good experience. Hope you've enjoyed.

Newt locked his computer and stood to leave. What was wrong with Tommy? It sure seemed important, whatever it was. He hoped Tommy was alright. How much trouble could the guy get into really? Knowing him, lots.

‘Newt. Where are you going? We need to talk, it’s important.’ Alby said, blasting back into the office.

‘Bloody hell. Can it wait? Tommy just asked me down to the foyer. Seems urgent.’ Newt said, walking towards Alby and the door.

Alby was stood blocking Newt’s way out. He seemed dumbfounded and Newt swore under his breath. ‘Alby if you need to tell me that bad then walk with me. If it can wait then bloody move.’

Alby jolted out of the way. ‘It can wait.’ He said softly, like he was lost in his own thoughts.

‘Good. Hopefully I won’t be long. I just need to do a few more things and then I am wiping my hands of this Wicked business.’ Newt made it out of the door before Alby could reply and power walked towards the lift.

He managed to catch it just in time, shoving his hand between the closing doors at the last second. The elevator was slow, was it normally this slow? He tried dialing Tommy. It went straight to voicemail. What was so important?

Finally the doors opened and he stepped out ahead of anyone else. Thomas was standing near the building’s wide front door, looking ready to run or faint or have a full blown panic attack. Newt wasn’t sure which. It looked serious though. Why would Tommy call him? Why not Minho or Brenda? Teresa even? Why Newt?

Instead of calling out to him Newt simply walked over to where his new friend seemed to be having a personal crisis. As soon as Tommy saw him he paled. He stopped pacing and his hands dropped to his side. He looked like he was about to tell Newt he’d killed his puppy. But Newt didn’t have a puppy.

‘Newt.’ He said. And it was a small, scared voice.

‘What happened Tommy? You look about ready to bloody klunk yourself.’ Newt replied.

‘ _Stupid bloody game..._ ’ Thomas muttered.

‘What game? Tommy, you’re scaring me.’ Newt held a hand towards Thomas, unsure whether to try comfort him.

‘It’s what you said. You said you were too bloody busy to play this stupid bloody game.’

Newt didn’t know how to reply. Tommy might think that things were falling into place and becoming more obvious, if the tone of his voice was anything to go by, but he was just confusing Newt even more.

‘Tommy.’ Newt said firmly, ‘Wanna tell me what the hell is going on?’

‘TheGlue.’ Thomas spoke up. Looking Newt in the eyes and seeming to gain a little colour in his cheeks.

He may as well have drained the colour straight from Newt, it was Newt’s turn to go pale. TheGlue. How did Tommy know that name?  What was going on? Did he find out about Padawan. Was Tommy upset that he had been blown off for someone Newt hadn’t even met?

‘What?’ was all Newt managed to get out around the lump forming in his throat.

‘You like chicken salad. And you drink all that tea. And your sister, I’m such an idiot, your sister, she didn’t move away she stayed in England.’ Thomas was looking right at Newt but Newt was sure the words weren’t meant for him. What about his sister?

‘I’m gonna need more than that, mate. Start from the top. What’s happening Tommy?’

Thomas stepped forwards suddenly. Straight into Newt’s personal space and pulled his face even closer. Newt was so shocked he didn’t even register at first that Tommy was kissing him. His lips were soft and yet pushing against his own lips hard enough to bruise. Newt shoved him back. Hard.

‘No. That’s not ok. I’m seeing someone.’ Newt gasped. Stepping back and trying to regain his own space.

‘Yea. You’re seeing me.’ Thomas replied.

He’d lost it. Thomas had lost it. Something must have happened and now he was loopy and Newt should call Minho or something to help deal with this. What was it with that second runner position? Did it drive people to insanity?

‘No, Tommy. You’re not well. I’ll call Min, ok? It’ll be ok.’ Newt reached for his phone but Thomas stopped him.

‘Newt. Glue. Isaac. Whatever you want to be called. Hi, I’m Thomas, you call me Tommy. But you also call me Pad! Short for Padawan! Cause Minho, the shuck, stole JediMaster.’

Newt’s heart stopped. His mouth opened and closed a couple times before he mentally told himself to stop it and pull himself to-bloody-gether. ‘What?’ he said meekly.

‘You didn’t like me at first. I don’t know what happened but you changed your mind. And I’m so glad you did cause, Newt, Gluesaac, you’re the best thing that ever happened to me. Your favourite colour is orange. That’s the first colour I saw you in, did you know. That day in the Homestead-’

Thomas spluttered to a stop around Newt’s lips, now pressed to his again. They got a whistle from at least two passer-bys and Newt could have sworn he picked out Gally’s distinct voice saying ‘get a room’.

The kiss was perfect and it summed up everything Newt was feeling in that moment. The surprise and delight and even a slight promise of passion. This was Padawan. This was Thomas, Tommy. This was the guy he had fallen for without even knowing his face or name. The guy he’d seen and instantly started crushing on cause, bloody hell, he was one attractive bloke. He was all wrapped up in one neat bundle.

They were interrupted by a distant yelling. ‘It’s Newt! Thomas! Tom! It’s Newt!!’

Thomas groaned. ‘Guess Teresa caved and told Minho who my mystery boyfriend really is.’

Newt laughed, ‘Teresa knows?’

Thomas nodded. ‘Said someone came to her and saw the notice I printed off. Connected the dots from there.’

Newt was confused, ‘The notice?’

That made Thomas blush a bright red. He was so handsome when he blushed, Newt thought. Before Thomas could answer his question however, the lead runner appeared on their floor, still yelling Thomas and Newt’s names, bursting out of the stairwell corridor.

He spotted Newt and Thomas and bolted over. Runner sure could run. He was gasping for breath when he slid to a halt in front of the boys, who had separated marginally as he had approached.

‘Ne- gasp- Newt. It’s- deep breath- TheGlue it’s... it’s...’ He seemed to finally notice that Newt was already standing there. ‘Him. Thomas, it’s Newt. Workplace cutie. Hot Blondie. Elven ang- Ow!’

Thomas punched Minho on the arm. ‘Yes, Minho, it’s Newt. I don’t think there’s a person here who doesn’t know.’

‘What was that last one?’ Newt laughed.

‘Nothing!’ Thomas cried over Minho’s, unfortunately audible, ‘Elven angel.’

Newt laughed as Thomas jumped on Minho, growling about things said in confidence. Minho, still out of breath, struggled in the grip Thomas had, yelling at him to watch the hair. Eventually Tommy seemed to notice Newt watching with amusement from the sidelines and broke away, feigning elegance.

‘I apologise for him. He is my shuck friend I told you about, he’s a shuckface.’ Tommy said.

Minho seemed to grasp something he hadn’t quite gotten until that point, ‘Wait you know? You knew? Since when!?’

‘Since after I text TheGlue and Newt replied. It wasn’t til I left the office I swear.’ Tommy laughed.

‘No fair, you didn’t even want to know and you and Teresa both found out before me!’

‘Ahh, hell.’ Newt mumbled.

‘What?’ Tommy said, turning to him, face full of worry.

‘Teresa. Wicked. I have work to do.’ Newt complained.

The last thing Newt wanted to do right now was go back and work on this Wicked deal. What did they need a big company like that for anyway? They were doing fine without. Maybe.

Newt knew he had to get back to work. Even if what he really wanted to do was just spend time with Tommy. He didn’t care what they did. They could go to lunch. They could kiss more, anywhere was fine. Bloody hell he’d even be happy with sitting in the same room emailing each other at this point. But he was so close to finalising this contract.

‘Oh, yea.’ It was so easy to see Thomas deflate.

‘It’s just Wicked. It’s almost done though. I’m handing it over to Alby so soon. Just bear with me for a couple hours and then I’m all yours to do whatever you like. Deal?’

Thomas perked up considerably, ‘Whatever I like?’

‘Thomas has some crafty ideas about you Newt, believe me.’ Minho quipped.

Thomas smiled sweetly, leaned forwards and placed a quick chaste kiss on Newt’s lips with a ‘Be quick, I can’t wait’ nnd then he swiftly turned and started fighting with Minho again.

‘Don’t break anything.’ Newt called over his shoulder as he raced up to his desk again.

He all but ran to his chair and started flipping through notes in a hurry. After half a minute of quickly pulling files and opening documents he realised he was being watched. He looked up to see Alby staring at him. It was almost scary, but then he remembered he had, five minutes ago, blown Ably off to see Tommy. Not that he cared.

‘What did you want earlier?’ Newt asked, quickly, everything he was doing was quickly. He was like a hurricane with a purpose.

‘I had to tell you something. About Thomas.’

‘That he’s Pad? Yeah, I know. Now help me get through this bloody work so I can go spend time with him, ya shank.’

Alby smiled broadly, ‘Good that.’

They both knuckled down and within the next two hours they had smashed through the work that had to be done. Funny how easy things get done with the right motivation.

‘I can handle it from here.’ Alby called as Newt clicked the _send_ button on one of the hundred emails he had sent. ‘Go, be with that runner boy of yours.’

Newt sent him his most thankful smile and stood, grabbing his coat, phone and wallet. ‘I’m leaving my things here and my computer logged on. It’s all here. If you need me, don’t call.’

‘Wouldn’t dream of it.’

#####

Thomas was far too full of energy to stay at Maze but far too excited to go anywhere else. He had ended up bouncing around in his and Minho’s office, annoying anyone who saw him.

‘Sit down. Play a game. Distract yourself for a moment.’ Minho cried, pulling his pictures of possible Glueman’s down.

Thomas noticed he left the picture of Newt up. And drew a heart around it. And _wrote Tommy 4 Newt_ in gaudy handwriting. Thomas would chastise him if it wasn’t now his favourite picture in the world, though it did little to capture the grace and elegance Newt seemed to encapsulate.

Minho was very pleased to, as they walked to their desk, announce to Brenda that Thomas was now dating Newt, or TheGlue. He was just happy he wasn’t the last to know after all.

Newt eventually, after the longest and most painful two hours of Thomas’s life, appeared in their doorway. He regarded his picture on the wall suspiciously for a moment before Thomas pulled him into another kiss.

Minho hooted loudly for all of a minute, until it didn’t stop. And even when he coughed awkwardly they kissed on. The broke apart only when he threatened to start throwing things at them.

‘Take it somewhere else, lovebirds. I have to work in here.’

‘You never work, Minho.’ Thomas teased.

‘Well I work more than you, fawning over some e-pal.’

‘It’s not my fault I had the best penpal ever.’

‘It’s an e-pal, shuckface.’ Newt and Minho chimed together.

Thomas really didn’t care. He simply pulled Newt towards the door, ready to do whatever he wanted, not that he knew what he wanted, but being alone with Newt sounded like a good idea to him right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this is it. This is the end of what I had planned for this fic. You've all been super supportive though so, a few things.
> 
> first- if you wanna share this on tumblr (you probably don't but i'm gonna make it easier anyway, just in case) this: [ http://starnightingle.tumblr.com/post/104037289272/its-an-e-pal-shuckface-chapter-1 ] is from my Tumblr.
> 
> second- I plan on doing a short series of one-shots, I'll link it to this one as a series so it's easy to find, but I'll be starting that tomorrow (hopefully), just small moments.
> 
> which leads me to third- if there are any prompts you have, anything at all, this fic or not, I would love to hear them so send em to me as a comment or on my Tumblr (which you can get to using the above link).
> 
> THANK YOU!!!!

**Author's Note:**

> First Maze Runner fic (I'm generally a JohnLocker so might get a lil ooc, lemme know) 
> 
> based on: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8473271/1/Les-Lettres-D%C3%A9fi cause I loved it and wanted to see these boys in that situation.
> 
> Hope you enjoy, let me know what you think...


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